The scroll before Arthur was a dense thicket of legalese and diplomatic pleasantries, but he read it quite fast. The rate at which he processed information was terrifying.
In just a few minutes, he understood how mundane these stacked papers were. To anyone reading them, they looked like the boring administrative fluff of a feudal lord. Every signature could prevent a skirmish or ignite a conflict; every trade agreement was a potential vector for spies.
Arthur focused on the first document: a trade negotiation from the Land of Rain.
'A political trap,' he knew.
The Akatsuki were trying to find his hidden villages again. They were persistent. The letter proposed a new route for importing steel and medicinal herbs, cutting through the northern mountain range of the Land of Birds.
No surprise that it was addressed to Toki. If Arthur rejected it outright, it would signal that they knew the Akatsuki's intent. If he accepted it without modifications, it would give Pain a legitimate reason to send "escorts"—shinobi scouts—into his territory.
Arthur dipped his brush in ink. He approved the agreement but added a clause: All foreign trade caravans must offload at the border checkpoint of Green Hill. Domestic transport will handle the final leg.
That would keep them at arm's length.
After signing Toki's name with a perfect forgery of her seal, he moved onto his next sensitive matter: a request for extradition from the Land of Earth.
Apparently, a rogue ninja from the Stone Village had been spotted in Arthur's territory—specifically, near a mining town in the mundane sector. Arthur checked the name against his mental database. It was a nobody, a C-rank deserter fleeing debt.
'Approved…'
He stamped the document. Handing over a petty criminal would bring goodwill with Ōnoki and reinforce the illusion that the Land of Birds was a cooperative, lawful neutral state.
Next on the stack was a report from Ashina Uzumaki.
Subject: Capture of Unspecified Missing-Nin.
Location: Hidden Eddy Sector.
Arthur frowned. For someone to get close enough to the Uzumaki enclave and be captured meant they were either very skilled or very lost. The report also didn't list a name, only a chakra signature description: volatile, fire nature.
'Shelter or prison…?' Arthur read.
If he sheltered them, he gained a potential asset but risked a spy. If he imprisoned them, he wasted resources.
He wrote a quick directive in the margins: 'Ashina is to conduct a mind-read interrogation. Assess value. If useful, recruit. If hostile, drain chakra and dispose.'
With the first half of the stack—the external affairs—done, he moved the paper to the 'Action Required' pile.
This second half revolved around taxation. It was a headache. He had to balance the levies on the civilian populace (to keep them happy and productive) with the demands of his hidden military state.
So he approved funding for three new ninja academies—one for the Uchiha sector, one for the Uzumaki, and a general one for the recruits from the minor nations. Then he signed off on a massive grant for the sealing research division; barrier teachings were their best defense against the Akatsuki.
Next came the disaster recovery logs.
Even though the war had ended, the mobilization of his forces had strained the infrastructure. Roads needed repair from heavy transport and safe houses needed restocking.
Arthur worked for hours. He didn't once complain. Neither did he take too long of a break.
By the time he finished the mountain of papers, he sensed something peculiar going on within one of his villages. So he slowly rose from his throne and stretched his arms out to materialize his white coat over his orange jacket.
'Flying raijin…'
✟
Arthur soon arrived in the Hidden Eddy Village.
He stood in a residential district, where the distinctive red spiral symbols of the Uzumaki clan decorated the buildings. In front of him, a massive hole had been blown through a perimeter wall. Smoke curled from the blackened edges of the masonry.
Standing around the wreckage were several civilians—farmers and merchants who resided in the sector to support the ninja economy. They looked upset, pointing fingers and shouting. In the center of the chaos stood Kaiyo Uzumaki. She was dusting soot off her hands, feeling guilty.
"Look!" a civilian shouted, spotting the flash of white movement. "One of the lords is here! You're gonna get it now, you troublemaker!"
Kaiyo flinched. She gave an unsure look, playing innocent but knowing she was caught. She then turned to face the new arrival.
"My lord," she bowed hastily, sweating. "I was just practicing... my Exploding Tag Sphere jutsu... and it... well, it blew up."
"You forgot to tell him that this is the second time this week!" a man shouted from his porch, waving a broken rake. "My chickens haven't laid an egg in three days because of the noise!"
"I was gonna tell him!" she shot back. "It was an accident because my ratio was off!"
Arthur found this dispute dislikable. They were petty and hardly worth his time. But maintaining the masquerade of a benevolent ruler meant he had to protect his civilians from the collateral damage of his super-soldier ninjas.
"Kaiyo," he ordered. She snapped to attention. "Go to the Torikage… Tell him of this incident and report yourself for disciplinary action. You'll be assigned to wall repair duty until it's fixed."
"Aw man!" she cried, slumping. "Wall duty? That's so boring!"
"Send her to the dungeon instead!" the man cried.
"Wall duty is great! I love walls!" Kaiyo blurted out.
Arthur then turned to the civilian man. "File your claim with the nearest administrative office. You'll be compensated for the wall and the chickens so long as you tell them, I, lord Arthur pre-approved it."
The man blinked, stunned. "D… did you just say 'lord... Arthur'?"
Not a single one present knew that the head of the country himself had come to handle a zoning dispute.
Arthur didn't wait for the adoration before suddenly vanishing again.
"That was lord Arthur?!" Kaiyo shrieked from down the street. She then recoiled in surprise, regretting her casual tone. "I'm so fired!"
✟
Back on the throne, Arthur sat in the silence.
That incident needed to be codified. If it happened twice, it would happen again. Uzumaki chakra levels were high, making their training mistakes like artillery strikes.
So what was the head of a nation to do to resolve the issue? Draft a new law.
'Prohibition of Ninjutsu practice within 500 meters of residential or commercial zones. Designated training grounds only. Violators are subject to rank demotion and labor service.'
Why a law like this wasn't written before was because it should have been obvious. Nonetheless, he wrote the letter to Toki, instructing her to sign it into law. She would forward it to Fugaku, who would then enforce it on all the villages.
It was a small act, but it mattered. It proved that Arthur wasn't ruling through fear. He wasn't Pain, demanding worship. Neither was like the Kages, demanding submission. Doing all this in this manner would garner him a loyalty that was harder to break than any genjutsu.
As night fell, the plaza grew quiet, but his duties never ceased.
Administration was only partly done for the day. Now came judicial matters.
Almost every other day, there was an incident that occurred within the country, of which Arthur had to make a judgement on. While lawful matters were often handled by those under him, certain cases were so extreme that they fell on Arthur to handle.
As he sat there, waiting, the doors opened to reveal two Uchihas being escorted by a woman clothed in a white cloak (Tayuya). One Uchiha was male, and the other female.
From what Arthur had read in the reports, these two Uchihas were training partners. Yet one day, the female placed the male in a Sharingan genjutsu, tricking him into falling in love with her.
As the illusion wore off, he sought redemption and took the matter to Fugaku. But when the woman was approached, she claimed that it was the man who had placed her in a genjutsu instead.
Now it was up to Arthur to make a fair judgment.
Both Uchihas walked toward the dais before paying their respect. Not a single one of them dared to look at one another, for they clearly were at enmity.
As Arthur sat there, contemplating without a word, he recalled a specific moment in the bible. That moment was when Solomon prayed for wisdom, and God our Father in heaven gave him it.
A stunning show of it was displayed when two women tried to claim one child that one of them gave birth to. But because both claimed the child, no one except Solomon was able to tell who was the true mother.
Arthur had only two real ways of determining which of the two Uchihas before him placed the other in a genjutsu. He could read their minds and unveil what truly happened based on the report. Or he could do what Solomon did.
"Since both of you wish to make light of your second chance on this earth," Arthur said, slowly standing up. He then extended his arm, materializing a standard katana. "I'll kill you both…"
At those words, the woman quickly bowed to the floor. "Wait, my lord! If you'll kill anyone, please only kill me! Let him live, I beg you!"
'So the woman loved him that much…' Arthur thought.
The matter was settled with the woman being scheduled to be imprisoned for her crime against her neighbour. Had Arthur not read the bible, nor had wisdom, he wouldn't be able to rule over these monsters like he had been.
Half an hour later, he finished his judicial work and moved onto intelligence.
The world was currently blind to the true location and strength of his nation. He desired to keep it that way. But blindness worked both ways; he also desired eyes on the outside. So Arthur tapped the armrest of his throne once, causing Kimimaro to appear.
The bone-user knelt instantly. "Yes, my lord?"
"There is a shinobi that needs to be captured."
Kimimaro looked up. "His name?"
"Suigetsu Hōzuki…"
Arthur knew that Orochimaru's primary hideouts had been both destroyed and raided. He also knew that Karin and Jugo had been swept up by the Leaf Village and integrated into their ranks—an interesting strategy, but not at all a loss for his own village.
Yet Suigetsu was unaccounted for in all of those acts.
"I've heard of him," Kimimaro noted.
"Persuade him to join us," Arthur ordered. "And while you're out, censor all of your techniques. Do not use your Kekkei Genkai unless necessary."
"Understood, my lord… Who would you have accompany me?"
Arthur had already considered his roster. He needed someone sturdy, someone who could handle Suigetsu's water style if things went south but who wasn't a high-value asset like Shisui.
"Only Jirōbō…"
As a durable brute, his earth style could counter water style. And if he died, it was a negligible loss.
Arthur had other plans for the rest of his troops. Tayuya and Kidōmaru were being prepped for a different hunt—the hunt for Kabuto Yakushi. That was a mission requiring more finesse and sensory capabilities.
Instructing Kimimaro to come closer, he transferred the knowledge of Suigetsu's likely location: Southern Coast of the Land of Water. A small port town. Suigetsu was last seen interrogating a sword collector.
"It will be done," Kimimaro vowed.
With one more use of the Flying raijin, Kimimaro vanished, leaving him alone again. He leaned back and closed his eyes.
The silence of the throne room was profound since it was past two o'clock in the morning. Fugaku was asleep in his office, Toki was resting in her palace in the public capital, and Sasuke was safe under his mother's roof for the first time in years.
Arthur's entire nation was at peace.
Such loneliness never made him feel hollow. It was times like these that kept him well grounded and faithful to things to come.
He had built a utopia for everyone else, had saved Sasuke from his darkness (for now), had given the Uchiha a home, and had given the Uzumaki a sanctuary. But Arthur was still the villain.
He soon stood up. Now was not the time to sleep on this peaceful night. For he still had several more tasks: he needed to check the seals on the laboratory, to check on the Six-Tails, and to begin planning for the upcoming Chūnin Exams in the Sand Village.